email - wordpress.com · 2015. 2. 28. · hal ini dibatasi pada kemampuan mengidentifikasi ide...

8
157 IMPROVING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS Juella Rumiris Email: [email protected] University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom ABSTRACT This study was a classroom action research aimed to improve EFL tertiary students’ reading comprehension by using graphic organizer, one of teaching methods used uni- versally to help learners to understand reading deeper, especially for retelling story out- come. The participants were 44 undergraduate students attending the researcher Read- ing II class. The improvement in this study was focused on the participants’ skills of de- termining main idea, identifying topic, summarizing, and enriching vocabulary. To check students’ comprehension, the researcher measured the students’ reading com- prehension using open-ended questions in written form, interview, as well as rubrics which are presented in both quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed that there was no significant improvement in the participants’ main idea identification and vocabulary enrichment skills. However, there was robustly significant improvement in their topic identification and summarizing skills. Keyword: graphic organizer, reading comprehension, main idea, topic, summarizing. ABSTRAK Penelitian tindakan kelas ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman membaca ma- hasiswa dengan menggunakan metode graphic organizersalah satu metode yang digunakan untuk membantu pemahaman secara menyeluruh dan mendalam, khusunya untuk tujuan mengungkapkan kembali sebuah wacana. Peningkatan pemahaman dalam hal ini dibatasi pada kemampuan mengidentifikasi ide pokok dan topik, penulisan ring- kasan, dan peningkatan kosa kata. Sebanyak 44 mahasiswa yang mengikuti matakuliah Reading II berpatisipasi pada penelitian ini. Untuk mengukur tingkat pembahaman ma- hasiswa dalam membaca, peneliti menggunakan pertanyaan terbuka dalam bentuk ter- tulis, wawancara, dan rubrik, yang disampaikan dalam bentuk kwantitatif dan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa setelah tiga siklus, pemahaman ide pokok dan kosa kata mahasiswa tidak mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan, namun terjadi pen- ingkatan yang signifikan pada aspek pemahaman topik dan penulisan ringkasan bacaan. Kata Kunci: graphic organizer, pemahaman membaca, ide pokok, topik, ringkasan. INTRODUCTION Reading comprehension is not only an essential but also the most important skill for learners of English because of its importance to ensure success in learning. Correia (2006) states that “Reading is a crucial skill for students of ESL and EFL, …” (p.16). in line with that, Pard- ede (2006) accentuated that for students who are learning a SL/FL reading is the most crucial skill to master due to several reasons. First, stu- dents can usually perform at a higher level in reading than in any other skills. They can quite accurately understand written materials that they could not discuss orally or in writing with equiva- lent accuracy or thoroughness. Such condition will undoubtedly enhance their motivation to learn. Second, reading necessitates very mini- mum requirements. Different from speaking which requires opportunities to interact with sparring partner, or from writing which needs a lot of guidance and time to practice, reading ne- cessitates only a text and motivation. Third, reading is a service skill. After learning how to read effectively, students will be able to learn ef- fectively by reading. Despite its great importance reading comprehension is a big matter for EFL students. Students in Indonesia do not have reading habits

Upload: others

Post on 21-Oct-2020

1 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 157

    IMPROVING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION USING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

    Juella Rumiris

    Email: [email protected] University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    ABSTRACT

    This study was a classroom action research aimed to improve EFL tertiary students’ reading comprehension by using graphic organizer, one of teaching methods used uni-versally to help learners to understand reading deeper, especially for retelling story out-come. The participants were 44 undergraduate students attending the researcher Read-ing II class. The improvement in this study was focused on the participants’ skills of de-termining main idea, identifying topic, summarizing, and enriching vocabulary. To check students’ comprehension, the researcher measured the students’ reading com-prehension using open-ended questions in written form, interview, as well as rubrics which are presented in both quantitative and qualitative data. The results revealed that there was no significant improvement in the participants’ main idea identification and vocabulary enrichment skills. However, there was robustly significant improvement in their topic identification and summarizing skills.

    Keyword: graphic organizer, reading comprehension, main idea, topic, summarizing.

    ABSTRAK

    Penelitian tindakan kelas ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman membaca ma-hasiswa dengan menggunakan metode graphic organizer―salah satu metode yang digunakan untuk membantu pemahaman secara menyeluruh dan mendalam, khusunya untuk tujuan mengungkapkan kembali sebuah wacana. Peningkatan pemahaman dalam hal ini dibatasi pada kemampuan mengidentifikasi ide pokok dan topik, penulisan ring-kasan, dan peningkatan kosa kata. Sebanyak 44 mahasiswa yang mengikuti matakuliah Reading II berpatisipasi pada penelitian ini. Untuk mengukur tingkat pembahaman ma-hasiswa dalam membaca, peneliti menggunakan pertanyaan terbuka dalam bentuk ter-tulis, wawancara, dan rubrik, yang disampaikan dalam bentuk kwantitatif dan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa setelah tiga siklus, pemahaman ide pokok dan kosa kata mahasiswa tidak mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan, namun terjadi pen-ingkatan yang signifikan pada aspek pemahaman topik dan penulisan ringkasan bacaan.

    Kata Kunci: graphic organizer, pemahaman membaca, ide pokok, topik, ringkasan.

    INTRODUCTION

    Reading comprehension is not only an essential but also the most important skill for learners of English because of its importance to ensure success in learning. Correia (2006) states that “Reading is a crucial skill for students of ESL and EFL, …” (p.16). in line with that, Pard-ede (2006) accentuated that for students who are learning a SL/FL reading is the most crucial skill to master due to several reasons. First, stu-dents can usually perform at a higher level in reading than in any other skills. They can quite accurately understand written materials that they could not discuss orally or in writing with equiva-

    lent accuracy or thoroughness. Such condition will undoubtedly enhance their motivation to learn. Second, reading necessitates very mini-mum requirements. Different from speaking which requires opportunities to interact with sparring partner, or from writing which needs a lot of guidance and time to practice, reading ne-cessitates only a text and motivation. Third, reading is a service skill. After learning how to read effectively, students will be able to learn ef-fectively by reading.

    Despite its great importance reading comprehension is a big matter for EFL students. Students in Indonesia do not have reading habits

  • Volume 7, Nomor 3, November 2014 : 157-164

    158

    both at school and home. Much information gained relies on teachers or visual-audio media which are the simplest and fastest ways to gain information. As a result, students do not have much time to interact with books and know them well. Hui (2010) says that when students read English text, they are placed more low level or local processing strategies (p.19). Most lear-ners may read more than three to five times, but they still cannot understand the reading content. Regarding this, there are some reasons. First, learners are lack of prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is established from cognitive infor-mation which is mostly gained from reading. There are many reading texts, especially for uni-versity levels are based on English native lan-guage countries which have different culture and experience from countries using English as se-cond or foreign language. Thus, students do not have interest in reading books in English due to lack of culture understanding. Second, learners tend to use native language in daily conversation rather than English. This situation support learn-ers less to practice unfamiliar words in English as part of learning. Third, in reading lessons learn-ers are occupied to answer questions which only allow them to read parts of reading. As a conse-quence, they do not know the whole reading and find the enjoyment of reading.

    As an English teacher in EFL class, I have observed, learned and applied graphic or-ganizers to improve students’ reading compre-hension. Graphic organizer is a technique to help students to make reading content easier to understand and learn (Ellis, 2001). Based on my experience, students can separate important in-formation from less important and has system-atical framework in planning, doing act toward his or her plan and plan reflection. These guide them to be strategic learners (Ellis, 2001).

    The use of graphic organizers have been proved successfully helping EFL students to reach better reading comprehension due to the fact the method makes reading an active activity so that the readers can comprehend what they read or see what lies between the lines. The idea of the importance of reading as an active activity was clearly indicated by Correia (2006) in her classification of reading into passive and active reading. Passive reading tasks do not require students to read deeply to answer the questions. The types of passive tasks of reading compre-hension practice are multiple choice items, true and false form and vocabulary work e.g syno-nym and antonym. These are known as the most frequent types of reading comprehension

    practices used. Correia (2006) believes such types of exercises as reading activity in class-room will encourage passive reading behavior: to find answer to a question. They also discour-age students to read between the lines or ques-tion the veracity and source of the information contained in the text. Those kinds of practice generally refer only to parts of the text, not to the text as a whole. The last reason is that it is totally neither challenging nor fun (p.17). On the other hand, active reading tasks require students to go beyond a superficial reading of the text to read “between the lines.” Learners are en-couraged to think not only deeply but also criti-cally about the topic. Correia agrees (as cited in Grabe,1997) that there are strong evidence by making diagrams and tables while reading texts, students can get better understand the co-herence and logic of the information being pre-sented. As consequence “will be able to locate the main ideas and distinguish them from less important information” (p.17).

    A teacher’s role is to make sure that learners have prior knowledge related to concept and to provide a means for helping the students make connections between prior knowledge and new concepts. Graphic organizers can link the new information to existing knowledge easier and help learners to build schema to understand new concepts. Guastello et.al (2000) says that if prior knowledge is activated, the schema will provide a framework to which the new infor-mation can be attached and comprehension will be improved (pp.356-364).

    According to Strangman, Hall, and Meyer (2003) a graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships be-tween facts, terms, and/or ideas within a learn-ing task. Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps, concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers, advance organ-izers, or concept diagrams (pp.2-4). There are many types of graphic organizers and each of them has the core concept, which is to show connection among facts, terms and ideas of reading task. A graphic organizer is supposed to show these three components to be a communi-cative graphic organizer.

    Ellis (2005, p.3) mentions three bene-fits of using graphic organizers. First, graphic organizers make content easier to understand and learn. They help students to separate im-portant information from less important, yet in-teresting enough. Second, graphic organizers decrease the necessary semantic information

  • Rumiris, Improving University Students’ Reading Comprehension Using Graphic Organizers

    159

    processing skills required to learn the material. Graphic organizers allow material to be set in sophisticated organization to be easier to under-stand. Third, students who use graphic or-ganizers may become more strategic learners. Strategic learners include how a person thinks and acts when planning, executing and evalu-ating a task and the outcomes.

    Ellis agrees with Novak and Gawin (cited in Ellis, 2005) that a concept map is a vis-ual illustration displaying the organization of concepts and outlining the relationship among or between the concepts. Concept maps should be: hierarchical with subordinate concepts at the apex; labeled with precise linking words; and crosslink the relation between sub-branches of the hierarchy are identified. Concept maps in-clude two key elements: concepts and proposi-tions. Concept is a perceived regularity in events or objects designated by arbitrary label. A prop-osition is formed by connecting two concepts with a rational link.

    Graphic organizers come in many dif-ferent forms, each one best suited to organizing a particular type of information. There are thir-teen main types of graphic organizers. First, a Descriptive or Thematic Map works well for mapping generic information, but particularly well for mapping hierarchical relationships. Second, organizing a hierarchical set of infor-mation, reflecting superordinate or subordinate elements, is made easier by constructing a Net-work Tree. Third, a Spider Map. When the in-formation relating to a main idea or theme does not fit into a hierarchy, a Spider Map can help with organization. Fourth, a problem and solu-tion map. This kind of map is used to show in-formation contains cause and effect problems and solutions. Fifth, a Problem-Solution Outline helps students to compare different solutions to a problem. Sixth, A Sequential Episodic Map is useful for mapping cause and effect. Seventh when cause-effect relationships are complex and non-redundant a Fishbone Map may be particu-larly useful. Eighth, a Comparative and Contras-tive Map can help students to compare and con-trast two concepts according to their features. Ninth, another way to compare concepts’ attrib-utes is to construct a Compare-Contrast Matrix. Tenth, Continuum Scale is effective for organiz-ing information along a dimension such as less to more, low to high, and few too many. Elev-enth, a Series of Events Chain can help students organize information according to various steps or stages. Twelfth, a Cycle Map is useful for or-ganizing information that is circular or cyclical,

    with no absolute beginning or ending. Thir-teenth, a Human Interaction Outline is effective for organizing events in terms of a chain of ac-tion and reaction (especially useful in social sci-ences and humanities).

    Graphic organizers have been applied in any subject areas, such as science, social stud-ies, language arts, and math. In these subject ar-eas, graphic organizers have been shown to have benefits that extend beyond their well-established effects on reading comprehension Graphic organizers related to operations such as mapping cause and effect, note taking, compar-ing and contrasting concepts, organizing prob-lems and solutions, and relating information to main ideas or themes can give advantages in learning process. Thus, there are three im-portant factors influencing the effectiveness of Graphic Organizers. First is grade level. Graphic Organizers cover all level in learning, from ele-mentary to university populations. The function is the same, yet the depth of the topic discussion is different. Second is point of implementation. Graphic organizers generate larger improve-ments in learning when used as a follow up to reading rather than a pre-reading activity. The last is instructional context Graphic Organizers. Instructional context concept suggests that graphic organizers can be effective learning tools when implemented within a proper and precise instructional context, especially an interactive approach involving teacher modeling, student-teacher discussion, and practice with reflection.

    Graphic organizers can be thought as a procedure to measure a students’ declarative knowledge. Any assessments can be conceived as a combination of a task, a response format, and a scoring system. A task means to provide evidence of students’ knowledge structure. A scoring system means that learners’ graphic or-ganizers can be evaluated accurately and con-sistently.

    METHODOLOGY

    This study was conducted at the Eng-lish Teaching Study Program of the Faculty of Education and Teachers Training of the Chris-tian University of Indonesia in the even semester of 2011/2012 Academic Year. The participants were attendees of Reading II course. The re-search was conducted approximately 10 weekswith time allocation 1.5 hours in one ses-sion per week. The participants had mastered the basic reading comprehension skills, like iden-

  • Volume 7, Nomor 3, November 2014 : 157-164

    160

    tifying topic, main ideas as well as doing skim-ming and scanning.

    Respondents were required to be ac-tive in classroom, both in group and individual tasks. Most of the time respondents were ex-pected to use the time for discussion and making draft. The researcher acted as facilitator and monitor for students which means the research-er was expected to encourage respondents to keep trying when they fail after several attempts. In teaching-learning process, the researcher could advise and tailor respondents’ understand-ing in order to correcting concept misunder-standings.

    There were two different kinds of reading texts, narrative and descriptive reading texts given in this research because they are simply easy to follow. The graphic organizer template samples were introduced to respond-ents by pasting around the classroom. The aim is along the teaching-learning process, the re-spondents are able to absorb positive environ-ment, connect to the pattern and make it as habits. Ultimately, the respondents were re-quired to design Graphic Organizers with any shapes and color.

    Evaluation procedures were conducted in two types, written and oral test. Written test consisted of questions to identifying main idea, explaining certain vocabulary, identifying topic, and making summary. Oral test, interview in this matter, consisted of retelling the story and checking the correlation respondents’ story with graphic organizer.

    FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

    As shown in Table 1, each skill of the participants increased from Pre-Test to Post-Test of Cycle 1, yet there were variations fluctuation between Post-Test Cycle 1 to Post-Test Cycle 2 as well as between Post-Test Cycle 2 to Post-Test Cycle 3.

    After doing the Direct Learning Meth-od, respondents showed significant improve-ment from Pre-Test and Post-Test Cycle 1. The main idea and vocabulary skills showed signifi-cant increasing which median scores of each are 20 points to 60 points for main idea and 0 point to 30.8 points for vocabulary. In terms of topic skill, median score was still 0 in Post-Test Cycle 1. It means that the score of topic skill in Post-Test Cycle 1 had wider range than in Pre-Test. Summary had slight improvement, which medi-an score was from 15 points to 20 points.

    From the result shows in Table 1, the Direct Learning method encouraged respond-ents to pay more attention to reading strategies. However, the Direct Method could not encoun-ter respondents' topic and summary skills. To identify topic and making summary (including in-ference skill), respondents should see a reading text as a whole story which it delivers message readers.

    Table 1: Results of Reading Comprehension Tests (Overall)

    Tests

    Main Idea Vocabulary Topic Summary

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Pre-Test 23.5 20 7.4 0 9.3 0 14.5 15

    PT Cycle 1 46.3 60 35.2 30.8 36 0 28.3 20

    PT Cycle 2 42.2 62.5 27.9 0 65.1 50 42.6 60

    PT Cycle 3 47.7 75 41.1 41.7 47.7 100 29.4 60

    The results between Post-Test Cycle 1 and Post-Test Cycle 2 after doing Graphic Or-ganizer method decreased slightly in main idea and vocabulary skills and increased significantly in topic and summary skills. The mean score of main idea in Post-Test Cycle 2 showed 4.1 points lower than in Post-Test Cycle 1, even though the median score increased 2.5 points. It shows that main idea skill scores were central-ized in some points, so the range in Post-Test Cycle 2 was smaller than in Post-Test Cycle 1. The mean score of Vocabulary skill in Post-Test Cycle 2 was lower 7,3 points than in Post-Test Cycle 1; and the median score dropped to 0. It occured because respondents did not manage their time in the test. They did not have much time to do vocabulary problems. On the other hand, the topic and summary skills had improv-ing results. The mean scores of topic skills in Post-Test Cycle 2 increased to 29.1. The mean score of Summary skills in Post-Test Cycle 2 in-creased 14.3 points.

    Graphic Organizers encouraged re-spondents to see the whole reading text as a pic-ture story which it is easy to grasp by brain. As Correia (2006) suggests that active reading sup-ports learners to locate the main ideas and dis-tinguish them from less important information. When the picture story was drawn, it was easy for respondents to tell the topic (because it is the central, or mostly found in the story) and make summary. Paivio (as cited in Ellis, 2005) men-tions that memory has two separate systems connecting each other for processing infor-

  • Rumiris, Improving University Students’ Reading Comprehension Using Graphic Organizers

    161

    mation. One system is specialized in non-verbal imagery and the other one is specialized in deal-ing with language. Therefore, determining main idea and vocabulary should be supported by Graphic Organizers as long as respondents make no assumptions at all to the reading text. The ideas in reading text connect each other and are framed in a united non-verbal imagery; it is logic. The significant results are proved in topic and summarizing skills. Respondents ap-plied what Ellis (2005) suggests that Graphic Organizer helps learners to separate important information from less important and decrease the necessary semantic information.

    It is inferred that someone's prior knowledge to certain topic could affect his judg-ment to see the reading text as information. As Guastello (2000) says that if prior knowledge is activated, the schema will provide a framework to which the new information can be attached and comprehension will be improved. In this re-search, learners had had prior knowledge about the topic when they did Pre-Test. Yet, they as-sumed the content of reading text too quickly which lead them to the wrong perception about the content of the text. So, it should be empha-sized that prior knowledge is not only about the topic itself, but included the interrelated topics. If learners have insufficient prior knowledge, guessing and making conclusion are not sug-gested. Learners should take the reading text as new information to enrich their knowledge.

    Another reason is that time manage-ment. The respondents did not manage time well since each class got extra 20 minutes to fin-ish their work. They were really focused to make "great" Graphic Organizer rather than "commu-nicative" Graphic Organizer. As Ellis (2005) mentions that Graphic Organizer set the reading material in sophisticated organization which lead the content of reading is easy to understand. It can be concluded that learners were in the learn-ing process of improving the reading compre-hension.

    Having Review session before Post-Test Cycle 3 showed another interesting result be-tween Post-Test Cycle 2 and Post-Test Cycle 3. The mean scores of main idea and vocabulary skills increased 5.5 points for Main Idea and 13.2 points for vocabulary. Yet, the declination can be seen in topic and summary skills. The mean scores of topic decreased 17.4 and of summary decreased 13.2 points.

    In Post-Test Cycle 3, the researcher did not instruct respondents to use Graphic Organ-

    izers as a tool to answer questions. The re-searcher facilitated some spaces for simple pic-tures if they wanted to use Graphic Organizers. The fluctuation scores could happen with several reasons. First, the respondents found the text seemed easier than before. It encouraged re-spondents to read attentively and answered main idea and vocabulary well. It also indicated that learners have sufficient prior knowledge of the topic. Second, the respondents using simple pictures or Graphic Organizers could improve their scores in all areas because they saw the whole picture well. Third, around 30% of re-spondents did not join in Review session and came in Post-Test Cycle 3. It was one of the ways for not reaching any improvement in an-swering questions. Fourth, around 40% re-spondents did not join the test, so there are score 0 influencing the calculation.

    The researcher also did judgment through rubric of Tony Stead. Below are the re-sultsof Pre-Test, Post-Test Cycle 1, Post-Test Cycle 2 and Post-Test Cycle 3:

    Table 2: Results of Reading Comprehension Using Rubric (Overall)

    Tests

    Literal Level Interpretive Level

    Memory Translation Interpretation Application

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Pre-Test 0.9 1 0.3 0 0.9 1 0.8 1

    PT Cycle 1 1.6 2 0.6 1 1.1 1 1 1

    PT Cycle 2 2.3 2 1.9 1 2 2 1.8 1

    PT Cycle 3 1.9 3 1.5 0 1.4 2 1.5 2

    The data in Table 2 above reveal posi-

    tive improvement between the Pre-Test and Post-Test Cycle 1. All mean scores increased, yet not all median levels increased. The median levels of memory category and translation cate-gory increased one level; yet interpretation and application category stayed the same.

    After doing the Direct Learning method, the respondents found determining main idea and vocabulary were easier to do. This affected respondents’ view to see the story clearer than before. So, they could recall the details of the story better. The respondents had not reached Interpretative Level yet, because they still saw the story of reading text as writing form. They found difficult to connect one paragraph to an-other as one whole story. The other factor which could increase their scores is the same reading text. They had certain way in retaining what they had seen before. This prior experi-

  • Volume 7, Nomor 3, November 2014 : 157-164

    162

    ence helped them to read the text easier than the first time.

    The changes results from Post-Test Cy-cle 1 to Post-Test Cycle increases all in range 0.2 points to 0.9 points. The memory and the application categories stayed in the same com-prehension level, which were level 2 and level 1. The factor of short range score could cause memory category stayed in the same level. The application was the highest comprehension level to test. The result shows that the respondents had not reached that level yet. The translation and interpretation categories had improvement in median levels, which were to level 1 and level 2. Both mean scores increased significantly as well. It shows that respondents could rephrase better. When they felt confident to retell the sto-ry with their own words, their awareness of making conclusion, or inference was elevated. That caused the level of interpretation category was also increased.

    Graphic Organizer was proved to facili-tate visual images of the story. Since human mental judgment processes something faster with real things to see (in this case is pictures in Graphic Organizer), Graphic Organizer is a me-dia to answer questions. Yet, respondents tend-ed to copy the words from the text rather than use their own words. It is supported by Strang-man, Hall, and Meyer (2003) say that Graphic Organizer is a visual and graphic display which connects between facts, terms, and/or ideas within a learning task. It is also supported by El-lis’ theory (2005) that a reading material is set in sophisticated organization, in Graphic Organizer pattern, to be easy to understand.

    Based on results described above, it can be concluded that there are three main reasons influencing the increasing and decreasing re-spondents' reading comprehension results: first is respondents' willingness in learning new method; second is readers' prior knowledge could affect their mental judgment while reading a certain text; and the third is the tendency of readers to have certain memory of what they have read which let them copy the information rather than to use their own words which can lead them to wrong perception of the facts in the reading text. The results support Paivio’s theory (as cited in Ellis, 2005) that memory con-sists of two separate but interrelated systems which one is specialized in processing non-verbal imagery and the other one is specialized in deal-ing with language.

    Those reasons made the researcher to divide the respondents into two sub-groups: re-spondents’ joining all treatments and respond-ents’ not join not all treatments. The results of sub-group joining all the treatments chart can be seen on Chart 1.

    Chart 1: Reading Comprehension Results (Re-spondent Joining All Treatments)

    The result show that the mean scores of main idea and vocabulary enrichment skills in-crease from one level to another. While the mean scores of Topic and Summary skills in-crease up to Post-Test Cycle 2, but decrease in Post-Test Cycle 3. The median scores most of skills increase up to Post-Test Cycle 2, except Vocabulary. It happened because most of the re-spondents did not manage their time to answer vocabulary questions. The median scores were varied in Post-Test Cycle 3. The median score of main idea stayed at the same point; that of Vo-cabulary was, of course, higher than before; those of Topic and Summary decrease to 50 and 50.

    Chart 2: Reading Comprehension Results (Respondents Not Joining All Treatments)

    The results of respondents not joining all treatments is as seen on Chart 2. Each skill has at least one 0 score for median score. It shows that when the median score is 0, the ma-

    0

    10

    20

    30

    40

    50

    60

    70

    80

    90

    100

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Main Idea Vocabulary Topic Summary

    Pre-Test

    PT Cycle 1

    PT Cycle 2

    PT Cycle 3

    0

    10

    20

    30

    40

    50

    60

    70

    80

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Mean

    Media

    n

    Main Idea Vocabulary Topic Summary

    Pre-Test

    PT Cycle 1

    PT Cycle 2

    PT Cycle 3

  • Rumiris, Improving University Students’ Reading Comprehension Using Graphic Organizers

    163

    jor respondents were absent or they did not an-swer the questions at all. It is found that the mean scores from all skills do not reach 55% from the target. So, it can be said that by not joining all treatments, respondents miss their chances to make some improvements

    The researcher also used rubric of Tony Stead to see respondents' reading comprehen-sion improvement. The compilation of Pre-Test, post-Test Cycle 1, Post-Test Cycle 2, and Post-Test Cycle 3 is shown as follow:

    Chart 3: Reading Comprehension Results Us-ing Rubric (Respondents Joining All Treatments)

    The results of mean scores from all cat-egories increase up to Post-Test Cycle 2. The decreasing points happen in Post-Test Cycle 3. The median levels of all categories increase or stay up to Post-Test Cycle 2. The changes of levels happen to Translation and Interpretation categories.

    Graphic Organizers encouraged the res-pondents to see the reading text as a whole sto-ry. The mean scores increased significantly in each category. The interesting thing was the ap-plication category which was its mean score in-creased 1.2 points; yet the median level stayed at the same level 1. It means that the score range was shorter, so level 1 was still more than the others even it was not dominant anymore. It is proved by the increasing of level in Post-Test Cycle 3 to level 2 when the mean score stayed in 2.2 points. The declination of mean scores (even it is insignificantly seen) and the median levels of translation and interpretation categories could happen because of several things. First is the optional in answering questions. Second is the tendency of copying the text as summary.

    The results of Pre-Test, Post-Test Cycle 1, Post-Test Cycle 2 and Post-Test Cycle 3 for respondents not joining all treatments are seen as follow:

    Chart 4: Reading Comprehension Results Us-ing Rubric (Respondents Not Joining All Treatments)

    The mean score results increased insig-nificantly from one Post-Test to another; and all dropped in Post-Test Cycle 3. It can be found at least one 0 level domination in each category. The median level of memory category dropped to 0 after reaching level 2. The median level of translation only reached level 1 in Post-Test Cy-cle 2; then dropped back to level 0. The median level of interpretation reached level 2 and it dropped to 0. It happens to the application cat-egory as well; both are never in 0 level from Pre-Test. This phenomenon happens because re-spondents neither answered questions nor joined the test(s). It can be concluded that these data were not valid to be research reliable data.

    CONCLUSION

    Graphic Organizer is a method used to make language learners easy to see the whole pictures of reading text. It encourages people to transfer written ideas into images which are more easily processed by brain. This method is easy to understand and no need to follow any particular pattern. Using color and symbols as well as no particular pattern required, Graphic Organizer encourages language learners to focus on the details of the story. It is expected when learners can identify the details of a story, they can identify topic, share the story with their own words, inference and make connection the in-formation provided, and even give solution or ideas to reading text.

    The results of respondents’ reading comprehension improvement in this research are Main Ideas and Vocabulary skills have indica-

    0

    0.5

    1

    1.5

    2

    2.5

    3

    3.5

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Memory TranslationInterpetationApplication

    Literal Level Interpretive Level

    Co

    mp

    reh

    en

    sio

    n L

    eve

    l

    Pre-Test

    PT Cycle 1

    PT Cycle 2

    PT Cycle 3

    0

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    6

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Mea

    n

    Med

    ian

    Memory TranslationInterpetationApplication

    Literal Level Interpretive Level

    Co

    mp

    reh

    ensi

    on

    Lev

    el

    PT Cycle 3

    PT Cycle 2

    PT Cycle 1

    Pre-Test

  • Volume 7, Nomor 3, November 2014 : 157-164

    164

    tion to improve but they are no statistically sig-nificant improvement while Topic and Summary skills are robustly improved through using Graphic Organizer. The categories (Memory, Translation, Interpretation and Application) in rubric of Tony Stead were assessed and the re-sults are all significant to improve learners’ read-ing comprehension through Graphic Organizers.

    Recommendation

    For further research, researcher rec-ommends several points: First, Graphic Organiz-er could help language learners to comprehend a reading text. So, it is necessary to consider having Graphic Organizer as a part of Reading I course and/or Reading II course curriculum. Second, Graphic Organizers could help learners’ confidence to present what they have read. Due to time limitation, presentation session could not be conducted. Third, it is admitted that identify-ing main idea and defining unfamiliar words us-ing context clues can consistently increase if learners read more texts and practice the skills. Yet, it is not possible Graphic Organizers could help them to identify main ideas and retain the new words. The learners need more time to see the connection.

    REFERENCES

    Correia, R. (2006). Encouraging critical reading in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum Volume 44 number 1, 16-17

    Ellis, E. (2005). The theoretical an empirical ba-sis for graphic organizer instructions. Stephen Willis, University of Alabama, 3-13.

    Guastello, E. F., Beasley, T. M., & Sinatra, R. C. (2000). Concept mapping effects on science content comprehension of low-achieving inner-city seventh graders. Remedial and Special Education, 356-364.

    Hui, F.S. (2010). Reading strategy use, self-efficacy and EFL reading comprehen-sion. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 2, June 2010, 19.

    Katheeb, Omar. And M. Idrees. (2010). The impact of using KWL Strategies on grade ten female students’ reading

    comprehension of religious concepts in ma’an city. European Journal of Social Science Volume 12, number 3, 471-474.

    Olson, C.B & Land, R. (2007). A cognitive strategies approach to reading and writ-ing instruction for English language learners in secondary school. The Re-search in Teaching of English Volume 41, Number 3, February 2007. Nation-al Council of Teachers of English, 270-298.

    Ozek & Civelek. (2006). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. National Institute for Literacy. Retrieved on 12th March 2012 from http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1text.html

    Pardede, P. (2006). A review on Reading Theo-ries and its Implication to the Teaching of Reading. Retrieved on 6th March 2012 from: https://parlindunganpardede.wordpress.com/articles/language-teaching/a-review-on-reading-theories-and-its-implication-to-the-teaching-of-reading/

    Pavio, A. (1986). The theoretical an empirical basis for graphic organizer instructions. Stephen Willis, University of Alabama, 2.

    Stead, T. (2006). Teaching Children to read and comprehend nonfiction. Stenhouse Pub-lisher,1-17.

    Strangman, N. Hall, T. & Meyer, A. (2003). Graphic organizers and implications for universal design for learning: Curriculum enhancement report. The Language Centre of Calgary, 2-4.

    Thirteen Ed Online. (2004). Constructivism as a paradigm for teaching and learning. Re-trieved on 1st March 2012 from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

    Young, S. (2007). Holistic Learning. Retrieved on 1st March 2012 from: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/Programs?HolisticLearningEBook.pdf

    Blank PageBlank PageBlank PageBlank Page